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Esboro
World: Esboro *'Location:' Subsector Meridian *'Type:' Desecrated Shrine World *'Tithe:' Nix Before its loss Esboro exported tithed precious metals. Now they are all hoarded by the planet's despotic cultist leader. *'Population:' Approx. 25 million 000 000 in heretic territory. Approx. 5 million 000 000 loyalists on Hannavar. *'Government:' Cultist Dictatorship. The cult leader Elphes Redd maintains absolute and brutal rule. 'Description' Esboro was declared a shrine world many millenia ago when Saint Belisarius won a great victory against the Kruk here. For centuries it was home to devout citizens, pilgrims, holy sites and many members of the Ecclesiarchy. After the fall of Triot in 152.M41, Esboro began to panic as they had absolutely no means of local production and relied entirely on the industrial world for technology. To maintain order the priests spouted rhetoric declaring that the Emperor and his Imperium would provide for their citizens and they had nothing to fear. When this rhetoric proved false the faith of many was shaken, and this created a perfect situation for the rising power of Elphes Redd. Initially moderate, Redd promoted working towards self-reliance by using the extensive funds of the planetary ecclesiarchy to repurpose some of the many large cathedrals into manufactorums that could provide the world with what it needed. This naturally incensed the local priests but many citizens supported Redd and his power grew exponentially. A bungled assassination attempt by one foolish priest only served to boost Redd's popularity and soon he had almost total support from every citizen in Esboro's capital city of Esba, roughly half of Esboro's population and the entirety of its governing structure. Redd's plans worked exactly as he had promised they would, as churches in the city were modified to produce technologies & equipment the world desperately needed. Most ecclesiarchal personnel, seeing that their cause in the city was lost, departed the world or fled to outlying towns and villages (which were mostly self-sufficient without heavy industry). In 214.M41 almost fifty years after his political victory, it emerged that Redd was a powerful devotee of the chaos gods and the technologies created by his manufactorums were all tainted with his malevolent power, secretly subverting the entire population of Esba to his will. When he finally made his true colours known millions of souls were utterly bent to his whims, and the remaining planetary government was slaughtered as Redd installed himself as absolute dictator. Those few loyal priests who remained in Esba were mobbed & strung up, sororitas were violated & mutilated in public squares by gangs of cultists, and the entire city descended into bloody anarchy as those citizens strong enough to resist Redd's control were massacred by those who weren't. Such chaos and destruction only served to deepen the hold the dark powers had on Esba's people, and it wasn't long until once-pious citizens were etching chaotic marks into their flesh and praising the dark gods. Those outlying settlements closest to Esba were hit first. Swarmed by waves of now-fanatical cultists who repeated the orgy of destruction that had just been seen in Esba. Millions were killed in the first few days of Redd's betrayal, and with total control of Esba - and by extension all planetary functions - in his hands the world was essentially lost to the Imperium. The settlements far enough away from Esba to avoid the cultist's immediate attention were able to flee before they were massacred. The remaining loyalist population congregated on the large island of Hannavar in Esboro's northern sea that was home to the world's Schola Progenium, fortifying the already fortress-like complex extensively against cultist attack. They live here to this day ruled by a council of priests and schola personnel, sealed off from the outside world. Fortunately the schola was home to most of the world's military-grade weaponry so they can repel cultist attacks, but they lack the numbers to retake Esba and the rest of the planet. In the modern day Esboro is still ruled by Elphes Redd, the iconoclast afforded unnaturally long life by his devotion to chaos. However he has grown increasingly insane and despotic over the decades and he works his cultists like slaves as they dig up precious metals that Redd hoards in vast quantaties. Unlike many chaos cults of such size Redd's has yet to depart its world of origin due to the tyrant's own instability. Potential allies such as the Proselytes of Monophysitism are snubbed by Redd as he refuses to compromise or trade anything in exchange for passage off-world, the arrogant despot believing it an insult to his divine authority. However despite his apparent insanity Redd has cannily avoided and savagely punished the many attempts on his life by other cultists, the cult leader simply refusing to die by any means. *'Military:' Cultist hordes are poorly armed but numerous and fanatical. The Imperial forces on Hannavar are conversely well-armed with heavy defensive weapons like AA guns and cannons, but with only a few million citizens are incapable of projecting much power beyond their borders. The heretics also operate a poorly commanded defence fleet of six system ships. *'Technology:' - Imperial The Esban manufactorums continue to provide the cultists with imperial-grade technology. Hannavar also maintains imperial-grade technology and has its own production capacity. *'Strategic importance: 'Nix Esboro never had much strategic importance beyond its significance as a shrine world. Under cultist control it is useless. *'Loyalty:' **'Heretics 'Chaos The cultist hordes are fanatical devotees of the chaos gods. A small fraction however are simply unwilling citizens forced to accept their new society or die horribly. **'Loyalists' Imperial The small proportion of the population that resides on Hannavar are fiercely loyal to the Emperor (they have to be if they are to exist on such a cursed world). Category:Planet Category:Subsector Meridian Category:Shrine World